"A Public Service Announcement (PSA) is, in essence, a video commercial designed to raise awareness or change attitudes, rather than to sell a product. --Mass. Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University

Examples of previous Public Service Announcements are:

"Click it or Ticket" promotes buckling your seat belt in a car

"This is Your Brain on Drugs" discourages teen drug use

PSAs are generally developed for one of three reasons:

to prevent a behavior from starting;

to stop a behavior (cessation);

or to encourage adoption of a new behavior.

"Click it or Ticket" Examples

Consider: How much impact a PSA can have on our behavior?

"This is Your Brain on Drugs" Examples

Original PSA made in 1987

Remake made in the 1990s

Form & Function

"PSAs should be made the same way a commercial product is made except the job is much harder because instead of trying to sell more product or increase market share, we are normally trying to affect deeply seated public attitudes and behavior." - Bill Goodwill

Good PSAs Tend to...

Broadcast PSAs should be relevant to their audience, interesting or entertaining and leave the audience with a message that can be summarized in a single declarative sentence.

The message should be actionable, meaning we evoke the desired response from the audience, and there should be a response required.

Good PSAs move the audience or viewer along in a continuum.

Good PSAs are empathetic, meaning they build trust with their audience, or a sense of caring about a problem.

They need not be expensive, but they do need a tremendous amount of thought and research.​​

Bad PSAs Tend to...

Reflect poor planning and execution!

Bad PSAs try to get too much message into too little space and time.

“We need to cure the world today and these facts are going to do it.” (bad marketing strategy)

"PSAs can create awareness, show the importance of a problem or issue, convey information, or promote a behavioral change. Whether you have a cause of your own or you are an educator, PSAs create a forum for learners to actively participate in a project that allows them to become stewards of — and advocates for — social change." - How to Create the Perfect Public Service Announcement

The "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was created in Britain during World War II as a PSA for British citizens to remain strong in trying times of war. This poster was the third and final poster in a trio produced by His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) and the MOI (Ministry of Information) as a part of the British Government.

"These [first] two were posted on public transport, in shop windows, upon notice boards and hoardings across Britain. The third and final poster of the set was again very straightforward and to the point - it simply read ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. The plan in place for this poster was to issue it only upon the invasion of Britain by Germany. As this never happened, the poster was never officially seen by the public.​"

3. Keep Calm and Carry On

"It is believed that most of the Keep Calm posters were destroyed and reduced to a pulp at the end of the war in 1945. However, nearly 60 years later, a bookseller from Barter Books stumbled across a copy hidden amongst a pile of dusty old books bought from an auction." - Keep Calm and Carry On Website

Source Article: http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/history/

The Advertising Council began in 1941 and then took off with World War II.

"Lose Lips Sink Ships" during World War II meant beware of unguarded talk; we were fighting both Japan and Germany at the time (Facists). The idea was that Japan had received intel about where to bomb for Pearl Harbor. One should avoid speaking of ship movements as the enemy may intercept and distort the ships.

When men went to work in World War II, women were forced to work to keep the economy running and to support their families. This PSA stands as a representation of what inspired women across the country.